How to educate citizens on news vs opinion to drive Media subscriptions?

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CX Centric leads international interactive discussions centered around Business Growth through Customer Experience. These are known as CX Centric Conversations. Recently we led a discussion focused on the Media industry. This involved leaders from The Economist as well as The New York Times. As part of this discussion, it was noted that educating citizens on news vs opinion so as to drive Media subscriptions is a real challenge for most Media Companies. In this article, we present this challenge, along with the threats and opportunities. We then conclude with some concrete recommendations for the Media industry.

What do we mean by Educating citizens on news vs opinion to drive Media subscriptions?

We have realized that many media subscribers find it hard to differentiate between what is the news and what is an opinion, Customers are often misinformed about what is news vs what is an opinion hence the need for subscribers to know which is which as it helps them to better their understanding when consuming information.

Opportunities for Media Companies in educating citizens on news vs opinion to drive media subscriptions

• Allows for checks and balances - Counterbalancing influences by which the Company system is regulated

• Clearly categorizing content - Flagging clearly what content falls under news and that which falls under the opinion

• Owning your comments and/or content - Allows for the name of the person who wrote an opinion to be included in the opinion piece

Threats for Media Companies in educating citizens on news vs opinion to drive Media subscriptions

• Experts - some writers may view their opinions as facts

• Algorithms issues - Algorithms put subscribers/readers into echo champers

• Anonymity - Comments can be anonymous and resort to name-calling

Recommendations to Media Companies to help in educating citizens on news vs opinion to drive Media subscriptions

• Clearly labeling opinion vs new

• Indicate who the author is and his/her role or authority

• Disallowing anonymous feedback

About CX Centric

We regularly host #cxcentricconversations. These are global interactive discussions centered around the Customer Experience. Feel free to keep up to date here.

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